The following is an extract from the Biography of Peter A. Weston who started his working life as an apprentice with Supermarine in 1938 and who has kindly agreed that it may reproduced on this site.

Sadly Peter passed away in January 2004 and I am forever grateful to him for his knowledge and the information that he passed to me to enhance my site..........If you wish to read more about his life you can find the full story at:

http://members.aol.com/famjustin/Westonbio.html

Peter A Weston, Lancaster Radio Operator/Radar Navigator, Squadron 186, Stradishall / 45 Sqn, Tengah Malaya / 209 Sqn, FEAF Singapore - Iwakuni Japan, RAF

My memoirs were for my Family and for the relatives of my many good friends that were killed in action during WW2, the Campaign in Malaya and in Korea, I served in all 3 on operations. I served in the Lancaster Squadron 186 in the United Kingdom, Stradishall, during World War II, Squadron 209 in Japan during Korean War. I was radar, radio operator and navigator. Although I was not a pilot later on was fully certificated to act as second pilot on limited duties.

I started work at" Supermarine Aviation" works at Woolston in 1938, located facing the river Itchen, Woolston was an area within Southampton. I joined as an apprentice for a 7 year apprenticeship leading finally to becoming an aircraft ground engineer. For this opportunity my father had to pay the company cash to them so that they would pay me. We also had to attend the apprentice school located in the main office building where the Drawing office was, once or twice a week.

The designer of the Schneider Trophy Supermarine float planes and of the Spitfire was R. J. Mitchell, the most well known of the float planes was the S. 6B. it was the first plane to exceed 400 mph. in 1931 at 407. 5mph. The first flight of the Spitfire, K5054, took place at Eastleigh airport (on the outskirts of my hometown of Southampton. England) on March 5th. 1936 by our chief test pilot J. ' Mutt ' Summers. Sadly, R. J. Mitchell died in 1937 aged 42.

The picture shows the front of Supermarine Works facing the river and the Prototype Sea Otter coming down the slip for its first flight. The building on the left are the Main offices, R. J. 's office is in the second lot of windows down from the top.

The Flight shed, with the slipway leading down to the river, was the sole domain of the flying boats. All around this area and further into the factory was for Spitfire production. At that time in 1938 Mk. 1 and Mk 2 were on the production lines. I was first started on wing construction, then onto fuselages, the tailplane and fin units and other bits and pieces etc. always with a very experienced craftsman to teach us.

From here I was shifted to the flight shed to work on the flying boats, mainly Stanraers and Walrus. I enjoyed this period because they were finished aircraft and we would talk to the Test pilot who did, nearly always, flight test the boats and he was Flt. Lt. Pickering. Some of the boats were in for overhaul also, such as a couple of Scapa's.

When a Walrus was to be test flown, Flt. Lt. Pickering, when the tide was high, would start up and gently ease down the ramp into the river and take off over the ferries that crossed the river, sometimes scaring the pants off the crews who quite often shook their fist to him, this amused him and would make remarks about it.

At the finish of the test he would fly very low over the river, by low I mean about 300 feet or so, in front of the flight shed and loop the Walrus to signal that it had passed the test, if not, he would just land and return up the slip and it would be worked upon. If you haven't seen a Walrus looped, you haven't lived.

Another aircraft that I had worked on was the replacement for the Walrus, the Prototype "Sea Otter". Compared to the Walrus, It was what you could call a streamlined version of it, very neat and tidy with the Bristol Mercury engine mounted in the centre of the top wing and was what we used to call a " puller ", whereas the Walrus engine was a "pusher". The second Sea Otter was destroyed in an air raid later on.

The visits by the German civilian marine aircraft always created great interest. There were two types, one was a "Dornier Wal 26"flying boat and the other was a "Blom und Voss" H. A. 139 floatplane. They were beautifully painted and looked very well kept There was a large black Swastika against a white and red background on the fin and rudder. They were classified as "Mailplanes ", most of the workers said they were spy planes.

They were not allowed to land on the river Itchen, they had to land at Hythe near the B. O. A. C. flying boat base where a B. O. A. C. launch would lead them up the Solent, turning into the river to our works where our men were waiting to moor them to our landing stage next to the slipway. Customs people and other officials would go on board and finally the crew and any passengers were allowed off.

I had to visit the paint shop to collect some thing for my tutor, the shop was located across the road from the main entrance, it was where all the spray painting was carried out, i.e. Spitfire components, wings, fuselage, etc. On the floor above, it used to be the lofting room where wooden mock ups were made of prototypes and experimental types and high up in the rafters was what looked like a Spitfire fuselage with a rounded nose where the engine would normally be and an engine bulkhead each side of it on the wings, it was terribly dusty.

When I asked about it I was told that it was originally for a twin engine Spitfire but the idea was abandoned. Since that day I have never heard mention of it anywhere.

Going back a little, either just before the war or just after it started, we were told to expect aircraft from the Stranraer Squadron at RAF Calshot, which was just down the Solent from us. They were to be camouflaged Sea Green and Grey very quickly, there would be 12 altogether and would arrive 3 at a time. They arrived shortly afterwards and were right away hauled out first thing in the morning and pounced upon by the painters and working all night (there was always a night shift) they were ready to be picked up next morning, this pace was kept up until all 12 were done, believe me that was good going. This happened in September 1939.

In August 1940, I had reached the age of 16 and been working at the Woolston works for 2 years. At this time myself and 2 other apprentices were sent to the flight shed at Eastleigh airport, where the Spitfires were assembled and flight tested. We were each assigned to an experienced craftsman.

I enjoyed the environment there, It was completely different and exciting to see aircraft that you had been working on being prepared for air testing. Sometimes we would work outside and assist in preparing the aeroplanes for flight test. The chief test pilot was Jeffery Quill, he seemed to do most of the flying but also Alex Henshaw was there, (he was well known and famous for his record breaking flights pre war. ) along with one or two others.

The pilots would taxi out from the apron onto the grass and take off in almost any direction regardless of the wind factor. The duration of the tests were normally about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile I would be standing about 50 feet or so from the apron, on the grass area with a pot of dope and paint brush in hand along with fabric patches. A Spitfire would land and taxi to me and the pilot point to the ailerons or to the elevators and more than often, to both.

During the tests the aircraft are to be dived to around 400 M. P. H. and this sometimes causes the fabric on the ailerons and elevators to be ripped, so I, while engine was running would have to dash around, put dope over the area of the rip, put a patch of fabric on and dope over it again, the dope dried almost immediately. I would give the thumbs up sign and off they would go at full throttle, tail up almost immediately, and airborne.

The works were often host to various groups of people, and military officers from foreign countries. Some that come to mind, groups from The Ministry of aircraft production, France, Belgium, and watch a flying display of Spitfires, also the walrus, flown by Flt. Lt. Pickering who would do his famous loop in it.

One day a group from France were there on a perfect sunny cloudless afternoon watching Jeffery Quill in a Spitfire, do his display, he finished by going very fast and low in front of them, and he vanished from view. They were still looking to the front. Jeffrey Quill had gone around to the back of the hangars behind them, going full out, he came back between the hangars below roof level and made everyone jump out of their wits, including we who were also watching, he finished with a victory roll and landed just a few feet from the visitors. To say they were impressed would be putting it mildly.

A few weeks earlier while still with Supermarine, Cunliffe Owen had been bombed and we had seen it all. The sirens had sounded and as usual everyone made for the shelters behind the factory across the Eastleigh/ Southampton road but my mentor said we would be going to the woods further away.

When we got there we found most of the others were there too, and soon we saw aircraft, there were 3 HE. 111K,s we could see the bombs fall and they struck one of the back hangars, some bombs fell harmlessly on the grass surface of the airfield causing a few craters. Cunliffe Owen had a large calibre machine gun mounted on a truck, it was reported that they had shot down one of the raiders. later it was confirmed that indeed they had.

On the way home, after work, we had to pass Cunliffe Owen's to catch a bus further down the road, and we saw a long row of bodies, all were covered, there appeared to be quite a lot and to a young boy of just only past his 16th. birthday it was a traumatic experience despite being subjected to many air raids on Southampton.

I asked if I could transfer to Cunliffe Owen because of overcrowding in our dept due to the overflow of our workers from the bombed out factory and all agreed OK.

Peter Weston - taken in Canada in 2003 shortly before he passed away -
and in front of his beloved Spitfire...another warrior placed to rest....RIP Peter

Photograph taken in 1944 of crew from 186 Squadron in 1944
Peter Weston is in the centre at the back...

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